Auction Draft Tracker - Fantasy Football Draft Assistance
“The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer” – John Madden
The Auction Draft Tracker was one of the first apps I built, and I was proud of how it was structured. It was originally developed to help me track and manage my fantasy football draft targets, ensuring I had an organized view of player selections and remaining budget in an auction-style draft.
While the initial version was built to serve my own needs, this tool laid the groundwork for an enhanced version that will be integrated into Garbage Time Fantasy in the future.
A view of how a roster would be completed with a handful of useful features
Project Overview
Instead of manually tracking fantasy football picks on paper, I wanted a dynamic solution that could:
- Display targeted players and track selections in real time.
- Manage budget calculations based on selected players.
- Provide draft recommendations as selections progressed.
After testing the initial build in mock drafts, I quickly realized my approach had fundamental flaws. I had about a week before my league’s actual draft, so I pivoted, refactored the logic, and made the app far more intuitive and effective within that short timeframe. This was a major learning experience, reinforcing the importance of testing and adaptability.
Wireframing & UX Planning
For all my projects, I start with wireframes to map out functionality and UI structure before diving into development. Below is the wireframe that closely represents the final version of the app.
An example wireframe that I used to help shape features in this app
Technology Stack
- AngularJS: Built the interactive front-end with dynamic UI updates.
- Express: Served as the backend framework.
- Bootstrap: Provided a responsive UI foundation.
- Gulp: Automated build tasks and optimized performance.
- CSS3: Custom styles and layouts.
Future Integration into Garbage Time Fantasy
This project provided valuable insights into draft optimization, and its core functionalities will be expanded and refined in Garbage Time Fantasy. The next iteration will:
- Include real-time draft suggestions based on previously selected players.
- Offer enhanced analytics for player recommendations.
- Support team-building strategies throughout the draft.
This project was a great learning experience, reinforcing the importance of testing, adaptability, and UI planning in building dynamic applications.